Traditional Leaders Profiles
Paramount Chief Louis Lopua Naita Lobor,
Paramount Chief of the Toposa, Naurus, Kapoeta, Eastern Equatoria
‘My safari is nearly
over,’ but ‘now [that peace has come] it is the
time of sorghum.’
Senior statesman of the group, Paramount Chief Louis Lopua
Naito Lobor was born in 1938, one of ten children to his farmer
father. He attended school in Uganda, and studied to be a
teacher, specialising in mathematics, English and history.
But on graduation in 1963 he instead joined the East Africa
Safari company in Rwanda, where he worked for the next three
years.
Eventually returning to Sudan in 1973, he became Paramount
Chief in 1977. Despite his increasing frailty, and with successful
cataract operations conducted in Nairobi in 2004 behind him,
Chief Louis has a constant glimmer of mischief in his eye
and is a delightful tease.
Notwithstanding his age, Louis is an adventurous man, if
still a fierce Toposa. He is the first to run to the beach
in Durban, the last to leave the pier overlooking the Indian
Ocean. When he is accidentally left behind in Johannesburg
airport, enroot to Botswana, he is unfazed, and hobbles through
on his cane when his plane finally arrives in Gabarone. He
flirts with almost every woman we meet, and boasts proudly
of his six wives back home.
Heading inland in Ghana, Louis sits next to me on the bus,
calling out the crop names as we make our journey past farmers’
plots. In Botswana, Louis eyes longingly the herds of cattle
that we pass. ‘I am not a thief of money, I am a thief
of cattle!’ he proudly exclaims.
‘The tribes just kill themselves through cows,’
he says. ‘My safari is nearly over,’ but ‘now
[that peace has come] it is the time of sorghum.’
Chief Louis proudly recalls accompanying Salva Kiir for his
oath of office. But ‘government is neglecting the chiefs,’
he claims. ‘We are the new leaders of New Sudan,’
[but we need help].
He is, like the others, impressed by Botswana, particularly
by the approach towards cattle rearing, and by the urban areas
of South Africa and Botswana. ‘I found a lot of women
are chiefs. They received us with both hands united. Children,
they are not after cows, they are all in the school. Cows,
crossing alone and coming back alone. They are taking traditional
law properly. How can I reach where the people are and cattle
rustlers are? How can I solve cattle rustling on foot?’
‘I found a big town [Johannesburg/Pretoria & Gaborone]
which is wondering my heart, and if South Sudan can become
like this before I die I would be very happy.’
Chief Louis sighs when he is asked about the increasing death
tolls from cattle rustling raids. For him, peace in Kapoeta
will only be realized with effective disarmament. ‘Sudan
is new and its people are new. When the government comes,
all the guns should be chopped.’
